An evening pause: Performed live 2015. The directing however is very mediocre. During the very spectacular piano solo he or she seemed more interested cutting in a lot of random shots rather than showing what was really amazing, the piano player’s performance.
Still, a great performance. Hat tip Cotour.
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.
Have ordinary Americans finally awakened to the
anti-American plans of the Democratic Party?
For the past few weeks early voting data from a variety of states has begun to suggest a major shift in what have been the traditional voting patterns for decades. In the past, Democrats routinely dominating early mail-in voting, while Republicans instead went to the polls on election day.
This election season is seeing an almost Earth-shattering change.
Nor are these three states outliers. A look at a nationwide map of early voting shows that Republicans also lead in Georgia and Arizona. Though the overall numbers nationwide show a Democrat-Republican split of 46% to 36%, the number of early votes from Republicans this election is far higher than in the past.
Though caution must be exercised, and we must recognize that these numbers do not guarantee a win for Donald Trump, what the data suggests however is an amazing newfound voting enthusiasm among Republicans. » Read more
Click for original image.
Since the first comprehensive orbital data of Mars was sent back in the early 1970s by Mariner 9, scientists have generally concluded that many of the features seen at the eastern end of the giant Valles Marineris canyon were caused by one or several catastrophic floods.
The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here and taken on July 26, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), provides a good example of why the scientists have come to that conclusion. It shows what the camera team labels a “streamline feature surrounding crater.” I have added the arrows to indicate the presumed direction of flow. The flow went around this 2.5-mile-wide unnamed crater because the impact had compacted it, making it resistent to erosion. The flow however was strong and large enough to wash away the plateau on which the crater sits, as well as cutting into the crater’s southwest rim. In addition, the rim on the southeast was also cut through at some point, this time from what might have been flow eddies as the flood pushed past.
Hence, the theory of catastrophic floods.
SpaceX on October 11, 2024 submitted a request to the FCC to revise its Starlink satellite license to cover a revised plan for its second generation satellites that includes a request to place 29,988 Starlink satellites in orbit.
SpaceX first requests several amendments to the orbital parameters of its Gen2 system between 340 km and 365km altitude to keep pace with rapidly evolving global demand for high-quality broadband. First,SpaceX amends the inclination of its orbital shell at a nominal altitude of 345 km from 46 degrees to 48 degrees. SpaceX also amends its pending Gen2 application to seek authority to operate satellites in its Gen2 system in two additional orbital shells — at 355 km altitude in a 43-degree inclination and at 365 km altitude in a 28- or 32-degree inclination. The total number of operational satellites will remain 29,988 satellites across the amended Gen2 system.
With the exception of its polar shell at 360 km, which will remain unchanged, SpaceX also amends its application to more flexibly distribute satellites in its shells between 340 km and 365 km than requested in its pending application, specifically, in up to 72 planes per shell and up to 144 satellites per plane. While this reconfiguration will result in two additional shells and a higher maximum number of orbital planes and satellites per plane for all but one shell between 340 km and 365 km, the total number of operational satellites in the Gen2 system will remain 29,988 satellites.
In the company’s previous request for this number of satellites, the FCC had approved only 7,500, the full request still pending. We can expect objections from the other big satellite constellations to this request. The FCC’s response remains unclear. There could be legitimate reasons to limit SpaceX request, but it is also possible politics will enter the decision as well, for illegitimate reasons.
Meanwhile, astronomers are already whining about the problems these Starlink satellites will cause to their ground-based telescopes. It seems these so-called brilliant scientists can’t get it through their heads that astronomy from Earth will become increasingly difficult in the coming years — with hundreds of thousands of satellites planned from many satellite constellations, not just SpaceX — while astronomy from space has always been a better choice anyway. Rather than demand regulation or restrictions on these new satellite constellations, they should be pushing hard to developing new orbiting telescopes, now, for launch as quickly as possible.
China today successfully launched three radar satellites, its Long March 6 rocket lifting off from Taiyuan spaceport in northeast China.
The news report from China’s English state-run press made believe this launch was only one satellite, in contrast to its Chinese language press. It also did not provide information on where the rocket’s first stage crashed within China, nor whether any upgrades have been done to the Long March 6’s upper stage to prevent it from breaking apart and scattering low Earth orbit with space junk, as has now happened four times previously.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
102 SpaceX
48 China
11 Russia
11 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 119 to 71, while SpaceX by itself now leads the entire world, including American companies, 102 to 88.
NASA yesterday invited the media to attend to signing of the Artemis Accords by Chile at the end of this week.
Chile will be the 46th nation to sign. The full list is as follows: Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Romania, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, the Ukraine, the United States and Uruguay.
Though the Biden administration continues to describe the accords as a means for “reinforcing” the Outer Space Treaty — the opposite of its original intent — a new Trump administration will be well positioned with this very large alliance to force changes in the treaty’s limits to private property and capitalism. All that has to happen is a will to demand it. Some of these nations might balk, but I think most will go along, some quite enthusiastically.
An evening pause: Hat tip Cotour.
Harvard: where you can spend a lot of money
and still get a shoddy education
According to Harvard, donations to the university in 2024 dropped more than $151 million from donations the previous year, with other indications that overall donors and students are fleeing the university due to its anti-Semitic, pro-Hamas, racist DEI, pro-plagiarism, and anti-free speech policies.
Total donations were down by $151 million, or 14%, in fiscal 2024 from the prior year. Within that total, donations to Harvard’s endowment fell by nearly $193 million from a year ago, while donations for current use gifts increased by $42 million in that time frame.
The drop in donations won’t leave Harvard bankrupt, as it still has more than $53 billion in its endowment, giving it a strong foundation for survival, in the near term, if donations dry up entirely.
And they might.
Bill Ackman, a billionaire Harvard alum, said in December that Gay’s “failures have led to billions of dollars of canceled, paused and withdrawn donations to the university. … I am personally aware of more than a billion dollars of terminated donations from a small group of Harvard’s most generous Jewish and non-Jewish alumni,” Ackman said.
More significant however was the 17% decline in student applications as of December 2023. Though the numbers still exceeded application numbers from before the COVID epidemic, the drop now suggests students have reviewed the reality of this college versus its fantasy, and are now beginning to reject it.
Eventually Harvard will have to fix its bankrupt DEI policies as well as diversify its faculity so that not every teacher and staff member is a pro-Hamas anti-Semite who considers America the devil incarnate and all western civilization nothing more than an expression of “white supremacy.” (I know I am exaggerating but I also know sadly not by much.) If it doesn’t it will certainly fade from view, as students find more viable colleges, knowing that a degree from this bankrupt university will no longer get them the high level jobs they want.
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.
An Intelsat communications satellite launched in 2016 has broken up in its high geosynchronous orbit, scattering into as many as 57 pieces of debris.
“U.S. Space Forces-Space (S4S) has confirmed the breakup of Intelsat 33E (#41748, 2016-053B) in GEO on October 19, 2024, at approximately 0430 UTC,” states an alert posted on SpaceTrack, the U.S. Department of Defense’s space-tracking platform. “Currently tracking around 20 associated pieces – analysis ongoing. S4S has observed no immediate threats and is continuing to conduct routine conjunction assessments to support the safety and sustainability of the space domain.”
Douglas Hendrix, CEO of ExoAnalytic Solutions, said the U.S.-based space-tracking company identified 57 pieces of debris Oct. 21 associated with the breakup. “We are warning operators of any spacecraft that we think are at risk of collision,” Hendrix said via email.
This satellite, which served Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia, has had thruster issues since launch, suggesting the breakup might have been caused by similar issues.
At the moment is is unclear whether the debris will threaten other satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
The break-up once again highlights the profit potential for companies capable of removing such space junk. Communications companies like Intelsat as well as others in close orbits would certainly be willing to pay someone to clean things up, for many reasons.
Click for original image.
Though nothing in any image so far from the Mars rover Perseverance matches the rocky terrain that the rover Curiosity has been traversing for the past two years as it climbs Mount Sharp in Gale Crater, as Perseverance has been climbing up the rim of Jezero Crater in the past few weeks it is beginning to get a hint of a future rougher road.
The photo to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here and taken on October 20, 2024 by one of the rover’s high resolution cameras, is a good example. It looks uphill in the direction that the rover will travel. Note how as you go higher the ground appears to be more strewn with rocks and boulders. Another image, taken the same day by the rover’s high resolution camera, shows a close-up of an even more boulder-covered landscape.
» Read more
